CoC : Vicious Crowd - Vicious Crowd : Review

Vicious Crowd - _Vicious Crowd_
by: Alain M. Gaudrault (2 out of 5)

First off, this is metal with strong hard rock tendencies, which isn't an inherently bad thing, mind you, but overly susceptible to cheesiness. While that isn't the case with Vicious Crowd, other problems abound. The first few spins of this CD weren't too favourable. A few of the songs hit the mark with a good vocal line and a handful of excellent riffs, but the rest of the songs are either too samey, or the riffs become downright annoying halfway through the song. The musicianship is another sore point; sloppiness is readily apparent, and given the lack of density of the music, it shows considerably more. The guitar in particular seems in places overly simple, although solos are usually clean and tasteful. The vocals set this release apart from other bands of this genre with its quasi-hardcore flavour, tinged with hard rock melody. Personally, I feel the band should concentrate on fewer songs in order to develop them further, to give them their own distinct personalities, instead of producing a full-length album's worth of mediocre tunes as they have done.

Contact: Vicious Crowd c/o Jean-Christophe Marchal

(article published 9/6/1996)